Another day, another massive corporation ordering employees back to the office: Honda is joining the ranks with a return-to-office mandate of its own.

The pandemic is in the rear view mirror, and remote work has been one of the many causalities of getting back to normal. Companies like Amazon and Dell have been stubborn about ditching the employee perk, fighting substantial backlash and even protests.

Now, Honda has decided to jump on the bandwagon, with an internal memo that parrots the common RTO mantra of collaboration and culture.

Honda Internal Memo Establishes New Policy

An internal memo at Honda, obtained by Business Insider, has established a new remote work policy, requiring employees to be in the office “at least 80% of the workweek,” or four days per week.

“As Honda faces a rapidly changing business environment and increasingly competitive market conditions, we believe it is essential for associates to return to working primarily at on-site offices.” – internal memo from Honda

The memo, which was signed by Kazuhiro Takizawa, president and CEO of American Honda Motors Co., and Kensuke Oe, the president of Honda Development & Manufacturing of America, noted that employees have some time to comply, with the deadline for the change not until October 6th, 2025.

Why Is Honda Pushing Employees Back to the Office?

In 2025, more and more companies are making the push to get employees back in the office, with RTO mandates that range from a few days a week to full-on 40 hours in the office or you’re fired.

The reasoning is typically laden with platitudes and promises of improving the company culture and inspiring teamwork to complete projects and woo clients. As you can imagine, the internal memo from Honda did not stray from that party line.

“This decision is driven by the rapidly changing business environment, which requires increased collaboration and innovation that we believe can best be achieved through in-person teamwork.” – Honda spokesperson to Business Insider

This kind of rhetoric has become so common that it must be having some pretty positive results for businesses that issue these mandates, right? Well, not exactly.

Are Return-to-Office Mandates Good for Business?

It’s a fair question to ask. Huge corporations with millions of employees have been issuing RTO mandates like they’re lives depend on it, but the reality is that most work from home statistics show that businesses aren’t getting ahead by forcing employees back in the office.

For starters, research shows that companies that issue return-to-office mandates have seen no significant impact on either stock returns or profitability. On top of that, companies have offer remote work have been shown to have 16% higher revenue growth than those that don’t.

If you valuable employee retention, return-to-office mandates aren’t the best strategy either, with over 33% of remote workers saying that they would leave their job if forced back to their commutes.

Suffice to say, if you’re a business that wants to get ahead, return-to-office mandates are probably not the way to go.

Personal information belonging to nearly half a million individuals is believed to have been compromised in a massive data breach at Kelly Benefits, a payroll and benefits solutions provider operating out of Maryland.

The breach, which took place in December 2024, was revealed by the Maine Attorney General’s Office. In early April, it was originally reported that approximately 32,000 people had been affected. That number has now been dramatically revised, with the total estimate as high as 410,000.

Wide-ranging data breaches routinely plague companies that process sensitive customer information. Often, the consequences are grave, with several high-profile incidents in recent years that resulted in companies going into liquidation. Despite this, the tech landscape is failing to invest the requisite time and resources into remedying the situation, which threatens to spiral out of control.

Kelly Benefits Customer Data Exposed in Massive Cyberattack

More than 410,000 individuals – and counting – are thought to have been affected by a data breach at Kelly Benefits. The payroll and benefits company, which is based in Maryland, publicly disclosed the news in April, but the number of victims that it originally quoted was far too low. Revised estimates have seen that figure dramatically increase.

Reportedly, the breach took place between December 12 and December 17, 2024. Kelly Benefits later became aware of the breach, conducting a “time-intensive and detailed review of all files affected by this event.” The internal investigation was concluded on March 3, 2025.

In the above time period, cybercriminals gained access to the business’s computer systems, accessing and exfiltrating files containing “highly sensitive” customer information.

Full Cost of Breach Not Yet Clear

At this point, it is not clear whether or not the attack forms part of a wider ransomware plot. No such group has claimed responsibility and no demands have yet been issued. Compromised data is thought to include names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, tax ID numbers, financial account information, health insurance information, and medical information.

Several class action lawsuits have already been brought against the company, with victims alleging that it “failed to protect the personal information of thousands of people.” To try and remedy the situation, Kelly Benefits is offering those affected one year of free credit monitoring and identity protection services.

In the coming weeks and months, the true cost to the company will become a lot more clear. As reported by Reuters in December 2024, the average cost of a data breach had hit a “staggering” $4.99 million, representing a 10% increase on the preceding year.

Tech Landscape Failing Basic Cybersecurity Duties

In 2025, data breaches have reached scarcely believable levels. Companies report extensive cyberattacks on a near-daily basis – the consequences of which are often severe. While the financial repercussions can be damaging, it is the long-term consequences that prove terminal for so many. Even if a company manages to shoulder the immediate penalties, its reputation is often irreparably tarnished.

Seemingly, these warnings are falling on deaf ears. While the situation is getting worse, companies everywhere are neglecting even their most basic duties. A recent report from Trend Micro found that a shocking 78% of data breaches in the past quarter were the result of preventable vulnerabilities.

With AI continuing its rapid development, the threat landscape is evolving before our eyes. To prevent this situation from spiraling out of control, companies need to address how they deal with cyber threats. Clearly, our current approach isn’t working.

Security researchers have uncovered one of the biggest credit card theft operations in recent history. The campaign, which is known as “Darcula,” is thought to have resulted in the compromise of 884,000 credit card details. Beginning in late 2024, it targeted consumers across 32 countries, with the highest concentration of victims residing in the US and Europe.

Analysts at Mnemonic first identified the campaign in February. As a sophisticated “Phishing as a Service” platform, “Darcula” leverages advanced infrastructure and a subscription-based model to allow budding cybercriminals to carry out wide-ranging attacks. The experts estimate that “Darcula” could have incurred as much as $150 million in financial damage.

The business world is mired in cybersecurity peril, with numerous studies revealing that most companies are ill-prepared to deal with the current threat landscape. With the ongoing development of AI, a bad situation could soon get far worse.

Massive “Darcula” Phishing Operation Revealed by Cybersecurity Researchers

One of the biggest credit card theft operations for years has been uncovered. It’s estimated that the so-called “Darcula” campaign has led to the seizure of 884,000 credit card details, as well as generating over 13 million clicks from around the world.

The operation began in late 2024. Since then, it has targeted consumers around the world, with most of its victims located in the US and Europe. Experts estimate that it has cost consumers and businesses in excess of $150 million in that period.

Researchers at Mnemonic identified Darcula in February 2025. Examining a series of credit card thefts reported by various financial institutions, they managed to trace a pattern that spanned multiple countries. Primary servers were located in Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia.

Findings Point to Growing “Fraud as a Service” Market

“Darcula” is an example of a “Phishing as a Service” platform. By making sophisticated phishing tools readily available, these platforms enable unskilled cybercriminals to carry out attacks with ease. “Darcula” differs from traditional PaaS models in that it deploys advanced infrastructure and a subscription-based model.

Subscribers can access realistic replicas of different banking websites, e-commerce platforms, and payment portals. What’s more, “Darcula” uses real-time “session hijacking” to bypass multi-factor authentication (MFA), meaning that it is particularly difficult to combat.

“Darcula” is just one small part of the increasingly lucrative “Fraud as a Service” ecosystem. In 2023, Ravelin found that 56% of fraud analysts globally have reported that FaaS schemes have been used to target their organizations, signaling a massive surge in its popularity.

Action Needed to Avert Looming Cybersecurity Disaster

A cursory glance at the tech landscape reveals a sobering truth: the world is woefully underprepared for the current threat level. In April, a report from Trend Micro found that most businesses were failing in even their most basic cybersecurity duties, with 78% of successful breaches in the past quarter resulting from preventable vulnerabilities.

Our own “Impact of Technology on the Workplace” report posted some equally grim findings. Among them, we found that a shocking 98% of senior leaders are unable to identify all the signs of a phishing scam.

As AI innovation continues at a dizzying pace, things are only going to get worse. Increasingly, cybercriminals will deploy sophisticated attacks at scale, while new methods of deception will emerge. If the tech world is to avert looming crisis, a sea change in our collective cybersecurity approach is required.

A new bipartisan bill from US Democratic Representative Bill Foster aims to crack down on the smuggling of Nvidia chips into China. The lawmaker plans to table the legislation in the coming weeks, which will require regulators to introduce measures to verify the location of the AI chips, and stop them from booting up if they are not properly licensed under export controls.

Despite being subject to increasingly tight restrictions in recent months, reports have proliferated that Nvidia semiconductor chips – which are integral to the development of AI technology – are still being smuggled into China. In April, the Trump Administration placed its first “major limits” on Nvidia sales outside the US.

Since the emergence of DeepSeek in January, the US-China AI race has reached fever pitch, with President Trump desperate to see off competition from the superpower.

US Lawmaker Targets Nvidia Chip Smuggling

Democratic lawmaker Bill Foster aims to stop the smuggling of Nvidia semiconductor chips into China with new legislation, reports Reuters. The representative is set to table a bill in the coming weeks that will allow the chips to be tracked and have their location verified.

The bill has bipartisan support, with lawmakers on both sides of the House eager to stem the supply of chips, which are used to develop AI technology, to one of its biggest rivals in the AI space.

If passed, the bill would direct regulators to mandate the tracking of chips, as well as preventing them from booting up if they’re not properly licensed under current export controls. Reportedly, the technology to track and verify the location of semiconductor chips already exists, with much of it already built into the Nvidia chips.

Chipmaker In the Spotlight – Again

This is by no means the first attempt that the US government has made to control the flow of Nvidia chips into China. In 2022, the Biden Administration introduced the first such restrictions, which the company responded to by modifying its H100 chip to meet new regulations. It went on to become a China-specific product.

Most recently, in April 2025, the Trump Administration announced its own measures. As per the restrictions, the sale of some Nvidia chips to China without a license is now prohibited. This came in the wake of a letter from Elizabeth Warren, Democratic Senator of Massachusetts, urging the Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, to move quickly to stop Chinese tech companies from stockpiling the chip.

Despite this, numerous outlets have documented the continued passage of Nvidia chips into China.

US-China AI Hostilities Show No Signs of Abating

The early months of President Trump’s second term have been characterized by an escalating feud with China, of which AI has been one of the key battlegrounds.

In January, the release of DeepSeek sent shockwaves through the AI landscape. Then, in March, a Chinese startup known as Butterfly Effect debuted the world’s first fully autonomous AI, Manus AI, to further challenge the US’s supremacy where the technology is concerned. Meanwhile, the president set out his own ambitions with Project Stargate, a new company that aims to be the “largest AI infrastructure project in history.”

The president, along with bipartisan lawmakers on Capitol Hill, hopes that this latest legislation can put a sizable dent in its geopolitical rival’s technological prospects.

Truckers might want to start brushing up on their resumes: The southeast US has seen more than 1,300 job cuts in freight-related industries since April 2025.

The impacted industries include manufacturing and distribution in addition to freight. Tariff uncertainty and related trade tensions may be a factor in the job losses.

Here’s a look at the latest companies issuing mass layoffs, as well as how many workers will be affected in each case.

US Freight Company Lay Offs

Companies are required by law to issue a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) notice ahead of a mass layoff, which helps make it easier to spot layoff trends.

Thanks to WARN notices and other media reports, industry site FreightWaves was able to compile this list:

• C&S Wholesale Services LLC distribution center (Baldwin, Florida) – 490 workers
• Adient Plc auto supplier (Tennessee) – 415 workers
• Saks Global Tennessee fulfilment center ( La Vergne, Tennessee) – 446 workers
• Grede LLC iron foundry (Brewton, Alabama) – 220 workers
• Bunzl Distribution USA Inc. (Memphis, Tennessee) – 106 workers
• Saddle Creek Logistics (Atlanta, Georgia) – 73 workers
• Hood Container Corp. (Simpsonville, South Carolina) – 60 workers
• Corsicana Mattress Co. (Shelbyville, Tennessee) – 47 workers
• Quickway Transportation Inc. trucking company (Murfreesboro, Tennessee) – 45 workers

In most cases, the companies are either closing entire locations or shuttering their whole operation.

Texas Truckers Aren’t Impacted Yet

The layoffs are extending outside of the southeast corner of the nation, as well, with California already seeing cargo slowdowns. But Texas hasn’t been affect just yet. In an interview with WFAA, Jim Grundy, who owns 150 trucks at Sisu Energy LLC, says that they’ve “increased the amount of goods over the last 60 days out of fear of any delays of products.”

Grundy had a measured take on the U.S.-China trade war, as well.

“Neither economy wants to go through this […] The people are the ones who wind up paying for this, whether it’s loss of jobs or increased good prices.” -Grundy

Temu Pursues Local Fulfilment

The impacts of tariffs are already being felt in other industries, too. China-based fast fashion company Temu had previously announced hikes in price to accomodate the tariffs. Now, though, it has a new pivot.

It’ll be switching to “a local fulfillment model,” according to a report from Supply Chain Dive.

In other words, all of its US sales will be fielded by locally based sellers from within the country in which the order is placed.

“The move is designed to help local merchants reach more customers and grow their businesses. This shift is part of Temu’s ongoing adjustments to improve service levels.” -Temu spokesperson

It’ll be accomplishing this feat by recruiting US sellers to the platform. That’s good news for any US businesses that can keep their products local, although it may still result in higher prices for the consumer, since any arbitrage benefits will be lost.

The US is losing its edge when it comes to AI talent, according to a new report. The influx of new AI workers to the United States has dwindled to nothing.

Technically, the US hasn’t yet started losing AI talent to other countries, but it has reached the “break even” point, where the amount of top talent coming into the country matches the amount that is leaving.

Given the US’s historical role as the biggest attractor of AI talent, the negative trend seems clear. Here are all the new data-driven insights to know.

US Heads in the Wrong Direction on AI

Data intelligence company Zeki Data just dropped its latest analysis: The 2025 State of AI Talent Report pulls data on around 800,000 individuals working in AI today across 115 countries, with the notable exception of China. The study draws on “30,000 sources of open-access data to plot each individual’s levels of performance and teamwork, career path, influence, reputation and evolving skills.”

That’s a larger sample size than you typically see with similar industry studies, so it bolsters the impact of their findings. The biggest takeaway? The US is losing its edge when it comes to AI research.

The report’s topline summary explains that the best AI talent around the world used to make the US their top destination of choice. Now, that’s set to change.

“Talent from overseas has enabled the US to build and maintain its dominance in AI. This supply chain is drying up rapidly as Top AI Talent is no longer incentivized to move to the US. We expect this trend to accelerate, with long-term negative economic consequences for the US.”

Why? Funding Cuts and Job Loss

In the very recent past, the size and strength of the AI industry within the US was enough to make it the default destination for a wide range of AI workers that were serious about growing their careers. So what changed?

According to the report, the decline is due in part to three factors: Cuts to federal science funding, reductions in hiring from big corporations, and “a pivot towards homegrown sovereign AI.”

A few big changes made this year haven’t helped, such as the February 2025 budget cuts to the National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Institutes of Health (NIH), two major sources of public grants for AI research.

According to one key chart from the report, however, the decline in talent headed to the US first started back in late 2022 and has only accelerated since then. Now, we’ve finally reached the point where the amount of talent leaving the US is matching the amount that’s moving to the US, with a trend heading towards a future of brain drain.

Other AI Talent Winners and Losers

The report has a host of additional fascinating takeaway, too. First, they predict India will stop exporting talent and start gaining it instead. Major players in Europe and the Gulf States will also benefit, spurring investments in those countries.

Within the US, Google will come out ahead, taking “the dominant share of top LLM developers,” thanks to its current 35% market share, which positions it for long-term dominance in the AI space. Competitors OpenAI and Meta are not as well positioned.

Similarly, NVIDIA’s dominance will help it stay afloat as well, so the massive AI chip company is expected to keep attracting top talent.

Medical research, however, won’t do so well: “Technology companies will continue to recruit neuroscience and DNA nanotechnology experts at an alarming rate, putting medical research in these fields at a distinct disadvantage,” the report explains. In contrast, the defense sector will keep chugging along with autonomous warfare development.

A study analyzing the Danish labor market found that Generative AI models are yet to have any significant economic or time-saving effect on workers who use it.

Notably, users only reported an average time saving of about an hour per week, and in many cases, AI created new tasks that had to be completed, offsetting any time that had been saved.

The study comes in the wake of businesses rushing to implement AI agents into their companies. There have even been experiments of teams made entirely of AI agents, though these have been met with dire results. In the end, more research is needed before any conclusions on how AI will shape the labor market can be made.

AI Has Little Impact on Economic Outcomes in the Workplace

A new study from economists at the University of Chicago and the University of Copenhagen has revealed that AI is yet to make a significant impact on worker earnings or hours. Within the study, users reported time savings of just 2.8% of work hours (about one hour a week) on average.

Researchers focused on the impact of AI chatbots across 11 occupations considered vulnerable to automation, such as accountants, software developers, and customer support specialists. This covered 25,000 workers and 7,000 workplaces in Denmark between 2023 and 2024.

This study comes in response to the rapid acceleration of AI within the workplace, with businesses looking to implement agents to improve productivity. A recent report from Microsoft has also detailed a future for businesses that see AI agents working cohesively within human teams to take on easily automated tasks.

In Fact, AI Could Be Creating More Work

Even though firm-led investment boosted AI tool adoption in recent years — saving time for 64-90% of users in the studied occupations — the researchers reported that the benefits of its usage were less significant than they originally thought.

AI was actually responsible for creating new tasks for workers, 8.4% of them, even for those who didn’t actually use the chatbots themselves. This offset any potential for time saving. One example the researchers gave for this is that now, teachers must spend time trying to see if their students have used ChatGPT to complete any homework.

Notably, the study also found that the benefits of AI chatbots, including time savings and job satisfaction, are 10% to 40% greater when employers encourage their employees to use them. This highlights the importance of an AI-positive company culture as a driver towards success.

How Effective Is AI in the Workplace?

Even when the research concluded that yes, some time had been saved by the workers by using chatbots, only 3-7% of those productivity gains translated into higher earnings.

Previous studies have seen AI increase worker productivity significantly, with one worker noting a 15% increase on average. There are also ways to criticize this new study, as it did only focus on a number of professions, and its findings may even be outdated because of how quickly AI is developing.

Ultimately, more research is needed into whether AI can effectively save time for employees, and whether we will have the labor market transformation some expect is still up for debate.

Anthropic announced on Thursday that their AI chatbot, Claude, will be fitted with new apps and tools, known as Integrations, including Paypal and Square. The update draws on the company’s Model Context Protocol (MCP) that connects AI with various data sources, which it is then able to access and retrieve information from.

Similarly, the company announced the introduction of a research tool, known as Advanced Research, that will allow Claude to create more comprehensive and research-backed reports. The update is not unlike those of competitors, Copilot and Gemini, who introduced a similar feature not so long ago.

With a recent report from Microsoft detailing the potential collaborations between humans and AI agents in modern businesses, this advancement opens up more questions about how AI will be positioned within companies, particularly as the new features keep coming.

New Tools and Integrations Announced for Anthropic’s AI Chatbot, Claude

Anthropic’s Claude will now be equipped to access new apps and tools, in the company’s efforts to improve the quality of the chatbot’s reports when carrying out certain tasks. On top of PayPal and Square, Claude will also have access to some Anthropic partners, including Atlassian, Zapier, Cloudflare and Intercom.

On top of new integrations, Anthropic announced in the same blog post on Thursday that Claude has been upgraded with an Advanced Research tool. The chatbot will now approach user requests by breaking them down, and investigating each one individually before producing a report in five to forty-five minutes.

The Advanced Research tool is said to work hand-in-hand with the new integration options, giving Claude access to “hundreds” of internal and external sources before producing a detailed response.

As advanced research and analysis tools have already been implemented by the likes of Microsoft, Google and OpenAI in their own chatbots, Copilot, Gemini and ChatGPT, the move from Anthropic could certainly be seen as an attempt to keep up with the competition.

Anthropic Suggests AI Bots Run Risk of Operating in Isolation

Last December, Anthropic unveilved its Model Context Protocol (MCP) which changes where AI chatbots retrieve and utilize their data. Simply put, the protocol is an open standard to build secure, two-way connections between a data source (“MCP Clients”) and an AI powered tool, allowing the AI access to the information within that source.

This aims to widen the data AI bots have access to, and Claude’s recent Integration and Advanced Research update go hand-in-hand with MCP. The fear with AI bots, Anthropic explained in a blog post, is that they are essentially cut off from large chunks of information that could help them produce more comprehensive and useful answers.

“Even the most sophisticated models are constrained by their isolation from data – trapped behind information silos and legacy systems.” – Anthropic

While MCP sounds like a positive change for bots, it may not be integrated across competitors, such as OpenAI, who may prefer users to prioritize their data-connecting approaches rather than any external ones.

Creating Collaborative Business Teams with AI Agents

Bill Gates recently sent the Jimmy Fallon audience into nervous laughter when he claimed that in 10 years’ time, AI will remove the need for humans across most professions. However, it seems as if AI is moving towards collaborating with humans rather than replacing them.

Microsoft highlighted this notion of human-led, agent-operated companies, known as Frontier Firms, as the inevitable future of businesses. This setup sees a human manage multiple AI agents, freeing them up from emails, and instead directing their skills towards creativity and connection-building.

With only 15% of businesses reporting having never used AI in our Impact of Technology on the Workplace report, AI is already operating within the modern business, and it is with developments such as these in Claude that will allow us to see just what role AI will play in the future.

De minimis is a duty-free exemption on Chinese imports to the US valued at or under $800. It’s being removed by the Trump administration as of May 2, 2025, as part of a raft of extensive tax adjustments.

The regulation’s removal is bad news for any business that has built a model on top of sourcing production to China and Hong Kong, from dropshippers to many tech hardware companies. Consumers, meanwhile, can expect to see delays in package deliveries in addition to hikes in prices.

Here’s how the change could impact your business, and how you can respond.

What Is the De Minimis Exemption?

The de minimis was created in 1938 for the same reason you’d expect: To encourage the sales of small packages. Not only did qualifying packages avoid paying tariffs, but the package carriers didn’t need to file paperwork for them, either.

Ecommerce has boomed in the years since the exemption threshold rose to $800 back in 2016, with annual sales of low-value China and Hong Kong exports totalling $66 billion in 2023, a big jump from the $5.3 billion total in 2018. Those numbers refer to global exports, but the US is China’ biggest trade partner (a status that recent tariffs seem set to change).

Trump initially announced the exemption’s removal from China exports in February and had to pause the process, but has now officially gotten rid of it, effective Friday, May 2, 2025.

The official exemption — as provided by 19 U.S. C. § 1321(a)(2)(C) — allows for one shipment of goods (per person, per day) valued at or under $800 to enter the U.S. with no duty and import taxes. It’s still in effect for other countries outside of China and Hong Kong for now, but that could change in the future.

How Does This Impact Sellers?

Parcel carriers are the ones who will be charged with collecting the new duties, giving them a bunch of additional paperwork to figure out. Those extra costs will likely be passed on in the form of higher prices for deliveries, and the sheer legwork required will probably also cause shipping delays.

In other words, sellers will be faced with higher prices and slowing shipping times. They’ll need to figure out if they’re going to eat the costs themselves, pass the higher costs on to their customers, or some combination of the two responses.

The right choice depends in part on the market cost for your industry, and how your rivals are handling it. But it’ll also depend on your business fundamentals: Can you afford the changes? Many businesses won’t be able to handle the higher costs and can’t shift production to the US (or another country) quickly enough. Those businesses will have to shutter.

How High Will Costs Get?

Currently, the effective tariffs that US sellers sourcing products from China through commercial carriers will have to pay: 145% of the value of the product.

Since the US Postal Service is a government agency, it can charge slightly less: Postal Service tariffs on low-value packages will be either 120% or a flat $100 per shipment. It’ll get more pricy, though: On June 1, that flat rate will increase to $200.

A package that would have cost $12 earlier this year (assuming a 20% tariff on a $10 item) will now cost $22 from the Postal Service or $24.50 from commercial carriers like UPS or FedEx.

How Does It Impact Consumers?

Ecommerce sites are already increasing their costs to account for the hike in taxes.

According to shoppers’ reports, prices are up at fast-fashon sites like the Chinese e-commerce site Temu and its competitor, Shein. Amazon even got in trouble with Trump himself earlier this week, when reports surfaced that the company was considering adding tariff costs as a separate surcharge on the checkout page.

Amazon has since clarified that this plan was “never approved” and won’t be happening. Still, the tariff costs will no doubt lead to an increase in prices on Amazon items.

Are We in for a Secondhand Clothing Boom?

One potential option for cash-strapped customers: Opting for a secondhand market. Brands like Depop, ThredUp, and Poshmark all offer secondhand clothing. A new ThredUp report found that this industry grew 14% last year, thanks in part to Gen Z interest, and with the de minimis exemption rollback, a much larger audience might be opening up.

Some additional bulletpoints from that report:

• The global secondhand apparel market is expected to reach $367 billion by 2029, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10%.
• The U.S. secondhand apparel market is expected to reach $74 billion by 2029.
• The U.S. secondhand apparel market grew 14% in 2024, seeing its strongest annual growth since 2021 and outpacing the broader retail clothing market by 5X.
• In 2024, online resale saw accelerated growth for the second consecutive year at 23%, growing at its strongest rate since 2021. It’s expected to nearly double in the next 5 years, growing at a CAGR of 13% to reach $40 billion by 2029.

Naturally, there are only so many secondhand clothes to go around… meaning that tariff-driven interest will likely lead to price increases in that market as well.

$22B Impact to Global Freight Over Next 3 Years

Overall, the global impacts could be huge. According to experts who spoke with logistics news site The Loadstar, the price tag might be around $22 billion across the next three years.

That’s according to Derek Lossig, founder and senior industry advisor of ecommerce and transportation at Cirrus Global Advisors, who says that “The number of flights directly tied to e-commerce volumes over the Pacific is going to drop by as much as 90%, because China to US is the number-one airfreight tradelane in the world […]”

Another expert in the same article summed it up this way: “If ecommerce shippers sneeze, the rest of the world gets a cold.“

Cargo sellers might have long-term commitments for capacities that they’ll now have an unexpectedly hard time accomodating, adding extra stress. This month, or June at the latest, China-US cargo will likely dramatically slow down.

Duolingo is set to replace existing contract workers with AI, the company revealed in a memo this week.

Signaling his commitment to making Duolingo “AI-first,” co-founder and CEO Luis von Ahn claimed that the company will “need to rethink much of how we work,” and that “minor tweaks to systems designed for humans won’t get us there.” He also outlined several steps that the business will take to bring its plans to fruition.

The language app is the latest in a growing list of companies to replace workers with AI. However, the results of doing so have not always been unanimously positive. Recently, a study from Carnegie Mellon found that a fake company staffed entirely with AI agents would only have a 24% rate of success.

Duolingo to Replace Contract Workers with AI, Company Announces

Duolingo plans to gradually stop using its contract workers in favor of AI, the company revealed in an all-hands email sent on Monday and shared to the company’s LinkedIn page. According to von Ahn: “We’ll gradually stop using contractors to do work that AI can handle.”

The company cited the need to adapt to changing times as the reason for its new direction. Said the CEO: “AI is already changing how work gets done. It’s not a question of if or when. It’s happening now.”

He continued: “In 2012, we bet on mobile…that decision helped us win the 2013 iPhone App of the Year…betting on mobile made all the difference. We’re making a similar call now, and this time the platform shift is AI.”

Duolingo Commits to “AI-First” Approach

The move forms part of a pledge to be “AI-first.” According to von Ahn, this will require the company to “rethink much of how we work,” and that “making minor tweaks to systems designed for humans won’t get us there.”

To bring this plan to fruition, the company plans to make a number of “constructive constraints.” Among them, it will stop using contractors for “work that AI can handle;” look to hire future employees with proficiency in the technology; evaluate AI use as a key part of performance; only look to make future hires if a team “cannot automate more of their work;” and “fundamentally change” most functions through “specific initiatives.”

Despite his remarks, von Ahn was keen to allay fears that existing employees were vulnerable to being laid off in favor of automation. He signed off his memo by promising that “Duolingo will remain a company that cares deeply about its employees.”

Evidence Suggests That Companies Should Exercise AI Caution

In recent years, several companies have replaced portions of their workforce with AI. Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski has been unwavering in his belief that AI can, and will, automate most roles that are currently occupied by humans. In February, he told Bloomberg: “I am of the opinion that AI can already do all of the jobs that we, as humans, do. It’s just a question about how we apply it and use it.”

However, a recent study from Carnegie Mellon contradicts this belief. Researchers created a fake company that was run by different AI models, which were then instructed to complete everyday tasks that you would find in a software startup. The researchers found that, at best, the AI agents only successfully completed 24% of the tasks. In other words, the AI-staffed company was a complete failure.

Undeterred, Duolingo will press ahead with their plan to automate contract work. The company should definitely exercise a note of caution, however. These findings indicate that AI is not yet the silver bullet that many have hoped.

AI apps are all the rage in 2025, but a new study looked into exactly how much data they are collecting, and spoiler alert, it’s a lot.

Since ChatGPT, every business under the sun has been jumping on the AI bandwagon to make the technology part of their platform, with the goal of improving productivity and, ultimately, revenue.

However, with the technology advancing so fast, regulations haven’t been able to keep up, which has led to some serious data harvesting practices that may shock some users.

AI Apps Collecting the Most User Data

According to an analysis by Ecommerce Platforms, there are some AI apps that are a lot worse when it comes to protecting user data than others. In fact, almost all of the analyzed apps in the top ten collect more than 50% of the data inputted into the service.

Here are all of the AI apps collecting the most user data in 2025, based on the percentage of data collected versus the data on the app.

1. Amazon Alexa – 93%
2. Google Assistant – 86%
3. Duolingo – 79%
4. Canva – 64%
5. Otter – 57%
6. Poe – 57%
7. Facetune – 50%
8. Bing – 50%
9. DeepSeek – 50%
10. Mem – 43%
11. ELSA Speak – 43%
12. PhotoRoom – 43%

13. Trint – 43%
14. ChatGPT – 36%
15. Perplexity AI – 36%
16. Lensa – 36%
17. StarryAI – 36%
18. Wombo – 36%
19. Youper – 36%
20. FaceApp – 36%
21. Luma AI – 36%
22. Speechify – 29%
23. Pixai – 21%
24. Clipchamp – 14%

As you can see, the evolution of generative AI platforms like ChatGPT has not necessarily lead to worse privacy practices, with long-time stalwarts Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa leading the pack by a substantial margin. However, what that data is actually used for could be a more pressing question.

What Is User Data Being Used For?

In addition to tracking which AI apps track user data in general, the analysis from Ecommerce Platforms also investigated what user data is actually being used for any ranked AI apps on that as well.

For example, the research found that Canva was one of the worst companies when it comes to harvesting user data, not because of how much it collects but because of what it’s used for. 36% of collected data is shared with third-party advertisers and another 43% is specifically used for the company’s benefit.

Alternatively, while Google collects 86% of data on the platform, only 21% is shared with third-party advertisers and only 36% is used for the company’s own benefit. Admittedly, neither is great, but there is a clear difference.

AI Terms & Conditions

In addition to investigating the data collection practices of these apps, Ecommerce Platforms also dug into the terms and conditions that exist for these platforms to see how long it took to get through them and how hard they were to read. And, another spoiler alert, the answer is quite long and very difficult.

The worst offender was Clipchamp, which took three hours and 16 minutes to read from beginning to end, mostly due to the jargon-laden copy that was one of the hardest to read. Bing came in second at two hours and 20 minutes, while the term and conditions for Google Assistant comparatively took a breezy 56 minutes total.

Suffice to say, AI hasn’t made the nefarious data collection practices of big tech any better. In fact, given the swaths of data required to train these models into anything that actually works, it’s safe to assume that data collection is only going to get more prevalent in the coming years.

We’ve found one more reason to fight back against return-to-office mandates: More and more remote workers are reportedly requesting accommodations from the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Over the last few years, companies around the world have been insistent on getting employees back in the office, despite the majority of work from home productivity stats showing that the employee perk is good for business.

As a result, remote workers have done what they can — from petitions to walk-outs — to keep their flexible schedules intact. Now, ADA requests are on the rise.

ADA Requests Are Up for Second Year in a Row

According to a report from AbsenceSoft, titled 2025 State of Leave and Accommodations, ADA requests have risen for the second year in a row, with 60% of HR professionals stating that they saw an increase. Even more substantial, of those that said they saw an increase, 62% said the increase was by more than 21%.

The most common accommodation was remote work, with 51% of requests specially asking to work from home. On top of that, 46% were requesting intermittent leave or reduced schedules.

Given the fact that RTO mandates started hitting headlines with gusto just a few short years ago, this massive influx of ADA requests may simply be part of the pushback.

However, an increase in long-term disabilities is also what we’d expect to see if studies highlighting the negative long-term effects of Covid-19 are correct, given that everyone and their mother has caught the bug a handful of times by now. Much like those caring for young kids or elderly parents, those with disabilities need to work remotely to maintain flexible schedules, avoid burnout, and care for themselves.

Is Remote Work Even Covered by the ADA?

According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the government agency in charge of enforcing the ADA, businesses are not required to provide remote work to all employees. However, if you offer any remote work positions, you “must allow employees with disabilities an equal opportunity to participate in such a program.”

“Not all persons with disabilities need — or want — to work at home. And not all jobs can be performed at home. But, allowing an employee to work at home may be a reasonable accommodation where the person’s disability prevents successfully performing the job on-site and the job, or parts of the job, can be performed at home without causing significant difficulty or expense.” – US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Subsequently, there are scenarios in which an employee may be entitled to work from home, if they meet the requirements and go through the proper channels to get them approved.

How to Manage ADA Requests As a Business

The language in the ADA dictates that businesses must provide reasonable accommodations for employees with disabilities, as long as it doesn’t cause “undue hardship.” That kind of vague language obviously leads to some subjective interpretation, so how should you business approach these kinds of requests?

The best place to start is a good faith discussion with your employees. Flexible schedules can make life infinitely easier for your staff, and if productivity isn’t dropping, abiding by these requests could do a lot to improve employee satisfaction.

Our Impact on Technology in the Workplace report even found that business providing remote work have higher employee retention and increased revenue, which makes this accommodation a bit of a no-brainer.

AI isn’t ready to take over all the jobs just yet, with a recent experiment demonstrating that a fake company run exclusively by AI agents would have, at best, a 24% rate of success.

Since the ChatGPT-fueled AI boom, the business world has been abuzz with talk of AI taking people’s jobs. Even Bill Gates came out and said that, in just 10 years, the majority of jobs will be obsolete.

That time definitely isn’t here yet, though, with researchers putting the theory to the test with disastrous results.

Researchers Created a Fake Company Staffed Entirely by AI Agents

The experiment from Carnegie Mellon, reported first by Business Insider, saw professors from the esteemed university creating a fake company run by different AI models from companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, and Google.

The AI models were then instructed to complete tasks that employees in a small software startup would need to accomplish, like analyzing spreadsheet data, conducting performance reviews, and picking a new office space.

The fake company in question, called TheAgentCompany, was then evaluated based on how effective it was at accomplishing these basic tasks, and if you can believe it, the company was an absolute mess.

The Fake Company Staffed by AI Was a Disaster

The experiment from Carnegie Mellon showed that AI simply isn’t ready to take over the business world, with not a single model able to achieve even a moderate level of success when it comes to running a business without human intervention.

Claude from Anthropic was the highest performing AI model in the research, accomplishing just 24% of the jobs it was tasked with. Other models, like Gemini from Google and ChatGPT from OpenAI fared even worse, achieving approximately a 10% success rate on requested tasks. The worst performing AI model was Nova from Amazon, which only accomplished 1.7% of jobs.

To make matters worse, the study found that these AI-powered companies were not only inefficient but problematically expensive, with each task averaging a cost of about $6. Considering each job was averaging approximately 30 tasks to be accomplished, those numbers could really stack up.

Why Isn’t AI Ready for Business Autonomy?

The new era of AI has certainly show serious potential over the last few years, but there are some clear AI shortcomings that will likely prevent it from running a business on its own for a long time. Because of an inherent lack of common sense, the technology runs into some borderline embarrassing problems when it doesn’t have human intervention.

The clearest example from this experiment was the AI model’s inability to access a file containing important data needed to assign projects to other “employees.” An unexpected pop-up hampered the simple task, soliciting IT requests and eventually abandoning the task entirely.

Any human would have easily recognized that by simply pressing the small X in the upper right hand corner of the pop-up ad, you could move on and accomplish the task. But alas, without common sense and a history of internet use, AI was unable to get the job done on its own.

Yes, big tech is investing in AI like crazy, lording its potential as a complete gamechanger for everyone on the planet. And while the environmental effects will certainly impact all of us, this experiment shows that we’re still quite far from a world where humans are no longer required to keep the wheels from falling off.

Intel has announced a change in its remote work policy that now requires workers to come into the office four days a week, rather than three. The change was announced by new Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan, who also revealed further changes to the company, which could see 20% of Intel’s workforce laid off.

The technology company joins the ranks of many others who are now issuing return-to-office (RTO) mandates, following the worldwide adoption of hybrid working after the COVID-19 pandemic. Most recently, Google loosely warned remote workers that their jobs may be impacted by layoffs, and IBM employees have been told they must come into the office at least three times per week.

Remote working, however, comes with numerous benefits, the most highly cited being employee satisfaction and increased productivity. Luckily, it doesn’t seem as if Intel is working as part of a wider trend to bring workers back into offices.

Intel Staff Now Required in Office Four Days, Up From Three

New Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan has announced that employees will have to come into the office four days a week, an increase of one additional day from the company’s previous remote work policy. In his announcement on Thursday, Tan claimed that the previous mandate had been followed unevenly, and the new change will come into effect on September 1st.

When speaking about the change, Tan justified: “When we spend time together in person, it fosters more engaging and productive discussion and debate. It drives better and faster decision-making. And it strengthens our connection with colleagues.”

According to a report by Bloomberg, an RTO mandate is not the only way Tan is aiming to change the company. It was reported that the company is planning to cut roughly 20% of their workforce, amounting to more than 21,000 employees. Intel has been no stranger to layoffs in recent years, having cut 15,000 jobs in August 2024.

Shifting Remote Work Policies Across the Tech Industry

Intel is not the first tech company to announce revised RTO mandates. Amazon took a bold step last year when it announced that corporate employees were required to work five days a week in the office, and Salesforce implemented a four-day-per week policy in October.

Most recently, Google and IBM have issued strict ultimatums to employees about returning to the office, with the latter even offering relocation fees for workers who don’t live near any of the company’s listed locations, rather than just having them work remotely.

RTO mandates have been in the news quite a bit recently, and a company can issue one for many reasons. According to CNBC, companies can recall employees back to work to make use of expensive corporate real estate, and in attempts to improve productivity and revenue if the company is enduring a rough period.

Not a Completely Bleak Picture for Remote Working

Despite big tech firms like Google, IBM and Intel taking this approach, it doesn’t seem that a RTO order is on the minds of many businesses. In our Impact of Technology on the Workplace report, we found that remote work remains an important privilege for employees and leaders alike.

It’s also worth noting that our research found that the option to work from home increases employee satisfaction. In our report, 35% of respondents also found that remote working allows for a more flexible schedule, and another 20% noted that it enhances productivity.

While it can be easy to look at businesses such as Intel and Dell and believe that RTO mandates are on the rise, our report found that 44% of businesses have not changed their remote work policy in the last year. Likewise a new report from Stanford and the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta revealed that most companies also don’t intend to change their remote and hybrid policies in the next 12 months.

It’s difficult to name an industry, from marketing to logistics, that AI hasn’t at least been in conversation with. However, a new report by Microsoft foresees the large-scale adoption of AI agents across every worldwide organization, organizations which it calls Frontier Firms. 

Claiming that intelligence was once a valuable and limited resource available to businesses, Microsoft now states it is available “on tap”, because of the rapid advancements in Artificial Intelligence over the past few years. Therefore, businesses should expect to work extensively with AI models in the very near future, and move decisively and quickly to implement changes.

Microsoft reports that this transformation is already underway, with some highly successful Frontier Firms already seeing strong results. The report aims not only to inform organizations of these changes, but to urge them to act now in ensuring AI’s presence in their workforce.

Microsoft Coins Businesses Using AI as ‘Frontier Firms’ and Urges Worldwide Adoption

In its latest report, Microsoft has predicted the rise of a new organizational blueprint known as a Frontier Firm, which sees AI machine intelligence blend with human judgement. These businesses are said to make use of “hybrid” teams that consist of humans managing often several AI agents and working in tandem. Frontier Firms reportedly operate with more agility, rapid scalability and the ability to generate value at a faster rate.

Microsoft expects this mix of human and artificial intelligence to be a key way businesses should expect to operate in the near future, particularly as 81% of leaders say they expect agents to be moderately or extensively integrated into their business’s AI strategy within the next 12-18 months. It has idenfitied the journey to a Frontier Firm as follows:

• Humans working with assistants, where every employee has an AI assistant that helps them work better and faster.
• Human-agent teams, where agents are recruited into teams as ‘digital colleagues’ and take on specific tasks at human direction.
• Human-led, agent-operated teams, where humans set the direction, but agents execute business processes and workflows. Humans check on the agents as needed.

Microsoft made clear in its report that these stages do not necessarily occur in a linear fashion, and businesses can even expect to be in all three stages at once.

Future Business Setups Will See Humans and Agents Paired Together

Significantly, Microsoft sees human intelligence and AI agents working closely together in the workplace, a nice contrast to the rhetoric that AI is there to take jobs. Instead, Microsoft identifies the key areas where agents could assist humans, particularly as knowledge work increasingly consists of meetings, emails or pings that cause the average worker to be interrupted every two minutes. 

Humans, the report outlines, work best in the realms of “creativity, judgement, and connection-building” and do not exist to “answer emails all day”. Therefore, Microsoft proposes that companies adopt a human-agent ratio metric within teams that sees agents take on easily-automated tasks under human supervision, such as emails, while the human takes on tasks better suited to their expertise.

If anything, Microsoft predicts that this collaboration will accelerate people’s careers, with 83% of global leaders stating that AI will let employees take on more complex, strategic work earlier on. Likewise, in a similar fashion to the rise of social media, AI will see the emergence of new job titles that didn’t exist before. LinkedIn data also showed that AI literacy is now the most in-demand skill of 2025.

Now Is the Time for Businesses to Take Action on AI, Microsoft Prompts

While we’ve seen AI tools adopt capabilities that could be beneficial for businesses, this large-scale integration of agents and humans in workforce is something else. However, the positive results of early Frontier Firms are evident, with 71% saying their company is thriving, compared to 37% of workers globally. Significantly, 55% of these businesses say they are able to take on more work, versus 20% globally.

Microsoft’s report notes that change is already happening, and businesses should act fast in starting their own journey to becoming a Frontier Firm. Leaders should not only look to employ agents, but actively work to change the cultural mindset of employees when it comes to working in AI. Significantly, 35% of managers are considering hiring AI trainers to guide employee adoption in the next 12-18 months.

“If you have a people problem, you will have an AI problem.” Amy Webb, Futurist and CEO, Future Today Strategy Group (FTSG)

To take the step forward, Microsoft advises businesses to do three things: begin hiring digital employees, set a human-agent ratio, and get to broad scale – fast.

AI needs to be better incorporated into early education. At least, that’s what President Trump thinks, having signed an executive order instructing the Department of Education and the National Science Foundation to prioritize AI in the classroom.

AI has been a big focus of the Trump presidency, with companies like Google, NVIDIA, and OpenAI working with the administration to ensure that the US wins the race for AI supremacy.

In addition to current investments, Trump wants to plan for the future as well by making AI a bigger focus for those in K-12 education.

New Executive Order Set to Improve AI Usage in K-12 Education

A new executive order was signed by President Trump this week, seeking to better position the US to be a powerhouse for AI education and employment.

More specifically, the directive instructs the Department of Education to make an effort to integrate AI tools into the learning experience and to better educate students on how to develop and use these tools in their future careers.

“The basic idea of this executive order is to ensure that we properly train the workforce of the future by ensuring that school children, young Americans, are adequately trained in AI tools, so that they can be competitive in the economy years from now into the future, as AI becomes a bigger and bigger deal.” – Will Scharf, White House staff secretary

In addition to the instructions for the Department of Education, the executive order also directs the National Science Foundation to make research about using AI in education a priority and the Department of Labor to prioritize AI training and apprenticeships moving forward.

President Trump on AI

As is often the case, President Trump had plenty to say about the executive order, noting that, “This is a big deal, because AI seems to be where it’s at.”

“We have literally trillions of dollars being invested in AI. Somebody today, a very smart person, said that AI is the way to the future. I don’t know if that’s right or not, but certainly very smart people are investing in it.” – President Trump

Whether or not Trump knows that’s right remains to be seen, but with AI becoming a big part of the business world and beyond, getting young people acquainted with the technology certainly doesn’t hurt.

The AI Skills Gap

President Trump has taken a lot of questionable actions since taking office earlier this year, but this one might actually be the right move, particularly given the substantial implications of the increasing AI skills gap.

Given the speed at which this technology is evolving and the lack of proper education to teach young people how it works, the reality is that in a few short years, the needs of the industry could far outweigh the breadth of the talent pool.

Hopefully, this initiative will light a fire under the feet of those in charge of educating young people on the kinds of careers that are going to be available when they graduate.

If you’re in Texas, don’t freak out if you start seeing vehicles with no drivers on the road, because fully autonomous trucks are set to hit the state’s highways in just a couple of days.

Driverless trucks have been a pipe dream for years, with companies promising an autonomous future that could change how the logistics industry does business forever. Progress has been slow, though, with very few fully autonomous trucks on the road in 2025.

That will no longer be the case in Texas, though, with Pittsburgh-based Aurora Innovation poised to send out completely driverless trucks very soon.

Completely Driverless Trucks Expected Soon on I-45 in Texas

Aurora Innovation officials announced this week that the company would be launching fully autonomous trucks on a 200-mile stretch of I-45 in Texas between Dallas and Houston.

The popular freight route will be graced with just one such truck to start, but Aurora Innovation plans to add more as time goes on.

This is a big step for autonomous trucks, as the technology has almost exclusively been tested with backup drivers in the cab for safety. Now, these trucks will be entirely without passengers, potentially changing the way we haul altogether.

Why We Need Fully Autonomous Trucks

For most jobs, the fear of automation is very real. AI has shown that it can do a lot of tasks better than humans, which has many concerned about mass unemployment. When it comes to truckers, though, there isn’t much to worry about.

In fact, the reality is that there’s actually a pretty severe trucker shortage in the US that is only getting worse, which could have a severe impact on the already-fragile supply chain.

“Everybody is looking at the same economics. The federal government is saying we have to move 50% more freight by 2050, but there’s a shortage of drivers. How do I solve this puzzle with more freight to move and less drivers to do it?” – Jeff Farrah, CEO of the Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association to Axios

While fully autonomous trucks aren’t the only ways in which technology is being used to address the trucker shortage, it definitely has the potential to solve it more than most.

Owner Operator Backlash

Understandably, not everyone is excited about fully autonomous trucks hitting the road in Texas. The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, for example, points to the lack of existing federal regulations on autonomous vehicles as evidence of the lack of safety provisions in place for this kind of decision.

“It’s absurd that AVs, which are unproven and unmanned, are given more latitude on American highways than professional drivers with years of experience like me are given.” – Lewie Pugh, executive vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association

While autonomous trucks could alleviate the stress of the trucker shortage in 2025, the endgame is clear: This job can be done by robots. And with 3 million truckers employed in the US, it’s hard to say if the economy could handle that kind of job loss.

The hits keep coming for remote work, with two of the biggest tech firms in the world issuing new mandates and ultimatums this week that will force employees back in the office at least three days per week.

It turns out that the pandemic was not the paradigm shift we thought it was going to be when it comes to remote work. While companies embraced it with open arms a few years ago, the business world has been swift in demanding employees return to the office with increasing intensity.

Now, Google and IBM have both issued new mandates and ultimatums to their employees, further establishing that the “new normal” was very much a temporary measure.

Google Tells Employees to Return to Office or Get Laid Off

According to internal documents acquired by CNBC, there are many divisions within Google telling remote workers that their future at the company could be in jeopardy if they do not return to the office at least three days per week.

To be clear, Google isn’t going to be explicitly firing remote workers. However, these employees were told that they could be part of upcoming company layoffs, which have been quite common at Google over the last few years, letting go of hundreds of employees from their Android and Pixel divisions earlier this month.

“As we’ve said before, in-person collaboration is an important part of how we innovate and solve complex problems. To support this, some teams have asked remote employees that live near an office to return to in-person work three days a week.” – Courtenay Mencini, a Google spokesperson to CNBC

The new ultimatum is hitting departments at Google in different ways, but the basics are the same. If you live within 50 miles, you have to be in the office three days a week. If not, you may be able to keep your arrangement intact, but any promotions would require relocation.

IBM Issues Return to Office Mandate

In a staff memo acquired by The Register, IBM has also told its employees that they will soon be required to come into the office at least three days per week. More specifically, employees were told “to work at least three days a week from the client location where their assigned territory decision-makers work, a flagship office, or a sales hub.”

Unlike Google, IBM isn’t as open to being flexible with employees who live 50 miles from a compatible location, and is offering relocation fees for those outside of that range, instead of simply allowing them to continue working from home.

IBM has been slowly moving towards a less remote workforce over the last few months, instructing managers earlier this year that they need to return to the office or be fired.

Fortunately, IBM has quite a few locations that could work for employees, including flagship offices in New York, Austin, Raleigh, Washington DC, and the San Francisco Bay Area, and sales hubs in Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Seattle.

The Benefits of Remote Work

With more and more tech firms ditching their respective policies, it would be understandable to assume that remote work has been proven to reduce productivity and decrease revenue. However, the majority of work from home productivity statistics show the opposite.

For one, 47% of businesses notice increased productivity levels among employees who work remotely. On top of that, research shows that businesses offering remote work generally show higher revenue growth than those that don’t, making a clear case for providing the employee perk.

Suffice to say, the benefits of remote work are substantial, which most companies actually do still understand. Our Impact of Technology on the Workplace report found that 44% of US businesses were found to have not changed their remote work policy in the past year, so don’t feel like you have to follow the trends set by big tech firms like IBM and Google.

Microsoft has made significant progress in its bid to overhaul its in-house cybersecurity governance following a crippling cyberattack. The new measures are part of a pledge that the company made in 2023 after it suffered a high-profile breach at the hands of a China-linked threat group.

In total, it hopes to carry out 28 objectives. The company has nearly achieved five of these, and has made progress with a further 11. Among the suite of actions that Microsoft has taken, 92% of employee productivity accounts are now protected with multi-factor authentication (MFA).

Cyber attacks are on the rise, with AI being one of the main drivers behind the present surge in illicit activity. To make matters worse, a recent report from Trend Micro illustrates that, largely, organizations are failing in their duties to prevent cybersecurity attacks, and are woefully unprepared for the evolving nature of the threat landscape.

Microsoft Making Progress With Cybersecurity Overhaul

Microsoft’s plan to overhaul its product development, threat detection, and corporate governance structure is bearing fruit. The program, known as the Secure Future Initiative, is the result of a wide-ranging cyberattack from 2023, during which China-linked threat actors hacked into the Microsoft Exchange Online environments of 22 customers. The consequences were dire.

In a blog post published on its site on Monday, executive vice president of security at Microsoft, Charlie Bell, wrote:

“We have made progress across culture and governance by fostering a security-first mindset in every employee and investing in holistic governance structures to address cybersecurity risks across our enterprise.” – Charlie Bell, executive vice president of security at Microsoft

Specifically, it has rolled out a “secure-by-design” toolkit to 22,000 employees, linked performance reviews to security best practices, and appointed a deputy CISO, alongside other changes.

Tech Giant Bids to Set The Record Straight

In the wake of the 2023 breach, Microsoft faced widespread questions over its preparedness for such an attack. In fact, the US Cyber Safety Review Board deemed that the attack was “entirely preventable,” and should serve as a “wake-up call to cloud providers.”

Designed to address shortcoming in the cybersecurity culture at Microsoft in the aftermath of a debilitating data breach, the SFI comprises 28 objectives. Of these, the company has made “significant progress” with 16.

For example, Microsoft has rolled out MFA to 92% of employee productivity accounts, which will go some way to insulating the business against future phishing attacks. Furthermore, the company can now lay claim to a 73% success rate in addressing cloud vulnerabilities within an undisclosed timeframe. It has also removed more than 6.3 million legacy tenants, more than 550,000 of which since September 2024.

Microsoft Paves Way For Safer Future

Ultimately, Microsoft deserves credit for its concerted efforts to not only address failings in its security infrastructure, but also to upskill its employees in the critical nature of cybersecurity in modern business. A recent report from Experis – which found cybersecurity to be the top concern of CIOs everywhere – highlighted the substantial skills gap that exists in the sector at present. Microsoft’s approach is a great example of a company taking steps to mitigate that gap – as well as building the next generation of security-conscious employees.

Cyberattacks are becoming more commonplace and sophisticated. As if that wasn’t bad enough, organizations are largely underprepared for them. Our latest Impact of Technology on the Workplace report found that a shocking number of senior leaders (19%) are unable to correctly define two-factor authentication (2FA) – one of the most rudimentary defense mechanisms that a business has at its disposal.

To put it plainly, when it comes to cybersecurity, the business landscape has a long way to go. Microsoft should serve as a shining example of how a company can both take accountability and set itself up for future success.

Patching vulnerabilities quickly significantly decreases the risk of incurring cybersecurity breaches, according to new research. The groundbreaking study, which was published on March 25, 2025, identifies a strong link between patching protocols and companies’ Cyber Risk Index (CRI), which is used to measure the likelihood of an organization suffering an attack.

Shockingly, the report also finds that 78% of successful breaches in the past quarter exploited vulnerabilities that could have been prevented by available patches, but which had not been implemented. This highlights a pervasive carelessness within multiple industries where cybersecurity is concerned.

According to our recent “Impact of Technology on the Workplace” report, just 1.6% of senior leaders can correctly identify a phishing scam, while 19% are unable to correctly define “two-factor authentication” (2FA). With the threat landscape evolving rapidly, it’s clear that businesses are not doing enough to counter the rise in cybersecurity breaches.

Patching Vulnerabilities Faster Dramatically Lowers Risk of Attack, Says Report

New research from Trend Micro highlights a strong link between the speed at which organizations patch cybersecurity vulnerabilities and the likelihood of an attack occurring. According to the “Trend 2025 Cyber Risk Report,” companies that reduce their patch implementation window from 30 days to 7 days will enjoy a 34% reduction in cyber breaches.

The study looked at exploitation patterns across several industries, including agriculture, communications, construction, transportation, government and public services, and more. Among other things, the findings indicate that threat actors are highly opportunistic, moving quickly to capitalize on systematic vulnerabilities.

Hopefully, the findings will send shockwaves across the business world, with troubling implications for the nature of the threat landscape – as well as the individuals in charge of insulating companies from the worst of it.

Full Extent of Organizations’ Cybersecurity Failings Laid Bare

Elsewhere, the report paints a worrying picture of businesses’ approach to cybersecurity. At present, most organizations are failing to adequately safeguard themselves against the threat posed by bad actors.

In news that should haunt IT teams everywhere, Trend Micro observed that 78% of breaches recorded in the past quarter exploited vulnerabilities that could have been prevented by speedy patching. In other words, the overwhelming majority of cyberattacks in the period were easily preventable, but IT employees simply failed to implement available measures quickly enough.

Whether this is the result of sheer incompetence or a series of mistakes, it’s an extraordinary statistic that sheds light on the lackluster approach that many businesses are taking towards cybersecurity at the moment.

Business Landscape Not Set Up For Evolving Threat Landscape, Evidence Shows

The Trend Micro report corroborates some of our own findings. In “The Impact of Technology on the Workplace,” Tech.co observed some similarly concerning cybersecurity trends in the modern business environment. For instance, nearly a fifth (19%) of senior leaders are unable to accurately define 2FA, one of the most basic authentication tools at a business’s disposal.

There’s a lot of evidence to suggest that cybersecurity isn’t afforded the requisite level of care and attention. The statistic above, as well as the findings in the Trend Micro report, point to a world in which data breaches are an afterthought for most businesses. To explicate this, our report found that 5% of respondents were unsure whether or not their business had actually suffered a cyberattack.

With the meteoric rise of AI, the threat landscape is evolving at a scarcely believable pace. Tech.co recently reported on a new Gmail scam that mimics the official “no-reply@google.com” address. We also recently published a piece on the spike in distributed denial of service (DDos) attacks. In this climate, businesses everywhere need to be doing more to ensure that they won’t be the next to be caught cold.

The ongoing antitrust trial against Google’s search engine “monopoly” is harming the US’s AI prospects, claims the company. As the trial reconvened on Monday, the tech giant argued that in order to stave off competition from China, the US needs Google in its “full form.”

The Department of Justice (DoJ) has called for Google to divest its assets, namely its Chrome browser and search data, in order to level the playing field for the company’s rivals. Following this, a federal judge ruled in August last year that the company held a monopoly in the internet search market, kickstarting the case in question.

In recent months, the AI race has intensified, with China rolling out a number of innovations to test the US’s existing market dominance. In January, DeepSeek landed and quickly shot to the top of the Apple and Google app stores. This was followed by Manus AI, allegedly the world’s first fully autonomous AI chatbot.

DoJ Proposal Threatens AI Progress, Google Warns

The DoJ’s proposal to break up Google’s search engine “monopoly” will significantly harm the US’s progress in the ongoing battle for AI supremacy, the company has argued. With the antitrust case reconvening on Monday, Google is set to argue that divesting its assets will “hamstring” innovation, with a particular focus on AI.

In a blog post on Monday, the company asserted that breaking up Google is not in the best interests of the US. Notably, it mentioned DeepSeek in the opening paragraph, as it appeals to President Trump’s desperation to get the upper hand on China, where AI is concerned.

According to the statement: “DoJ’s proposal would also hamstring how we develop AI…That would hold back American innovation at a critical juncture. We’re in a fiercely competitive global race with China for the next generation of technology leadership, and Google is at the forefront of American companies making scientific and technological breakthroughs.”

Landmark Case Drawing to a Close, Verdict Looming

The case is the result of a DoJ investigation into whether or not Google has flouted antitrust rules in the US. The department maintains that the company has unfairly strangled competition to install itself as the de facto search engine in the US. It has called for the company to divest its flagship Chrome browser, and open its search data up to rivals. Google disputes the allegations.

Last year, a federal judge ruled in favor of the DoJ, kickstarting the landmark antitrust case. The ongoing trial will determine the consequences of that ruling, with the trial set to end on May 9, and a verdict expected in August.

During proceedings on Monday, DoJ attorney David Dahlquist also argued that Google would need strong measures imposed on it to discourage it from using its own AI products to further its search dominance.

Chinese Competition Could Force Trump’s Hand

In citing US innovation, and in particular the AI race, Google hopes to play on President Trump’s sympathies – as well as his antipathy towards China. It’s not exactly clear which steps the President could take to mitigate the punishment for Google, but with his last-minute TikTok reprieve in January, he has demonstrated a willingness to intervene where Big Tech is concerned.

The US and China are engaged in a hotly contested battle for AI supremacy, with no clear winner at present. In the last few months, a series of Chinese innovations has turned the sector on its head, where previously the US could lay claim to be the global frontrunners.

In an effort to stymie Chinese progress, Trump recently issued new restrictions on DeepSeek. Google will hope that, in his eagerness to unseat China in the AI stakes, the President throws his lot in with the company and ensures a favorable ruling come August.